Since the reunion of Hong Kong and china in 1997, Hong Kong has changed its national anthem, education and language policy accordingly. This sovereignty transfer has manifestly brought changes at every aspect of local society, which undoubtedly reflects on the content and design of school curricula. As Putonghua, i.e. The official language in mainland china, has been taught in schools for sixteen years as an important measure to enhance the appreciation and understanding of Chinese cultural heritage and to endorse national identity, Putonghua songs ranging from the Chinese folk songs and the national anthem, to the popular song, Chinghuatze (written by the Taiwanese singer songwriter, Jay Chou), have become an indispensable music learning experience for many Hong Kong students. Integrating Putonghua songs into the general music curricula is part of the education and language policy in Hong Kong schools, how to construct and deliver an innovative and feasible Putonghua music curriculum to be enjoyed by music educators and learners becomes a major challenge and necessary undertaking. This project investigated the phenomenon of the learning and teaching of Putonghua songs in Hong Kong schools since the change of sovereignty in 1997. the principal investigator intended to study the current perception and impact of using Putonghua songs as part of the music curricula in facilitating the understanding and appreciation of Chinese cultural traditions by surveying 400 undergraduate and postgraduate music students (i.e. Potential future music educators in Hong Kong) followed by semi-guided interview sessions with some of those subjects. The perception and viewpoints of future music educators towards Putonghua songs were carefully examined and discussed in order to understand the challenges of the learning and teaching of Putonghua songs in the context of enhancing Chinese cultural exposure, values education and national identity in light of post-colonisation in current Hong

Since the reunion of Hong Kong and China in 1997, Hong Kong has changed its national anthem from god save the queen to march of the volunteers. Such political transform has manifestly aggravated significant changes in society, which undoubtedly influence the content and design of school curriculum (Curriculum Development Council, 2002). As Putonghua (i.e. The official language of mainland China) has been taught in Hong Kong schools as language and education policy for seventeen years, measurable outcomes and impact on music curriculum would be an important measure to strengthen national identity (Brand & Ho, 1999). However, Cantonese remains to be the most widely used language in hung Kong (Leung & Lee, 2006). As indicated by previous research (Law, 1997), the current phenomena of the learning and teaching of Putonghua music curriculum and its effectiveness in terms of execution is unclear and inconclusive. Hence, there is a great need to investigate Putonghua songs in the context of education, history, culture, politics, and sociology. This project aims to study student teachers’ perception (as future music teachers) towards the learning and teaching of Putonghua songs in view of enhancing nationalisation, Chinese cultural heritage and values education during post colonial period. The preliminary findings will be discussed based on the context of neocolonization in Hong Kong, i.e. Music teachers’ awareness and resistance towards Putonghua songs and national anthem, how such political, cultural, social and educational shift change the development and delivery of local music curriculum, national identity and national education, multiculturalism, and academic research.